Alleged Secret Gay Sex Shop Busted

Police in Washington Township, N.J., shut down a cigar shop they say was actually a secret gay sex club.

The owner of the Inside Out cigar store in the Whitman Plaza says it is a gay and lesbian social lounge that is open to everyone. But the owners of the businesses on either side of it say they are not comfortable with it.

Rommel Gargoles owns a martial arts business next door to Inside Out. Gargoles said something about Inside Out just didn't seem right. He said you couldn't see through the front windows, it would stay open until all hours of the morning and men seemed to stay for hours and left with no cigars.

"We have a lot of kids coming in," said Gargoles. "That type of atmosphere is not what we want around our kids."

"The moment we realized that something strange was going on next door, we immediately called the mayor's office, the zoning office and the police department," said dance school owner Debra Dinote.

The complaints were taken seriously, and authorities in Washington Township conducted an inspection of Inside Out.

"They actually found a couple cigar boxes there, nothing that you could purchase," said Washington Township Mayor Randee Davidson.

After viewing the store's Web site that referred to the store as "a gay gentleman's smoking lounge with a leather bar," township officials said that is not what they approved and they shut it down.

"I feel that is has been blown out of proportion," said Inside Out owner, Chris Georgianni.

Georgianni said he feels he is being singled out. "I definitely feel that this is all about homosexuality and homophobia."

A customer of the shop who wanted to remain anonymous said the cigar store is simply a place for gays and lesbians to socialize.

"I don't know why they feel if there's a gay-friendly place that gay men have to have sex. There was no sex going on whatsoever."

Georgianni said he is going to fight to keep the store open.

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